The Padiès goats have a privileged history. Their original owner was Maria, their first home was Castelnau des Fieumarcon where they enjoyed the free reign of the place – creating a little bit of havoc in their wake!

here they are creating a little havoc on denis’ terrace

Maria’s herd started with 4 goats (Oscar the father, and Cookie, Lili and Carocha) and grew to 13 :
Cookie had Oswold, then twins Rey and Guita
Lili had Manon and then twins Burrico and No Name 1
Carocha had Jumpy then twins Oscar Jr and No Name 2

Well, we had a gathering at Padiès on my birthday in September – Maria and Frederic were coming – with goats! Joy! (on my part) Panic! (also on my part). We didn’t yet have a home for them, or any fencing! We put a makeshift plan into action……..luckily when they arrived – no goats! But we arranged to collect them the following week.

So, another section of the corn crib became a goat tractor with pallets retrieved from the local building suppliers for sides. Portable electric fencing was installed (more on that at another time too) and the goat shelter and movable pen joined the chickens and their tractor in the orchard. On the first goat trip to Lagarde / Castelnau des Fieumarcon we took jumpy oswold and manon home – a second trip denis made later brought coockie and no-name. Maria and Frederic were to go to China, to Jiu Xian, where denis filmed and photographed the china section of Facescapes, and where Frederic is working on the village with a group of architecture students (see the post about them at Padiès) as part of china landmarks, a DaST project, they needed to reduce the goat population of Lagarde to a more manageable number.

the goats with their shelter – denis in the background

oswold, the randy buck and cookie and no-name

Jumpy and manon – not at all camera shy

and here they are busy eating